


Old Traditions in a New World

by CrackingLamb



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Family Fluff, Gen, Halloween, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 07:48:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12577076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrackingLamb/pseuds/CrackingLamb
Summary: It's Shaun's first Halloween.  Nora wants to make it a good one.





	Old Traditions in a New World

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween, AO3!

“So, I dress up as something other than myself, and then I go to each house and…ask for candy?” Shaun sounded incredulous and a little bit skeptical, and Nora tried hard not to laugh. Navigating parenthood was supposed to be a challenge, she knew, but was it made worse or better when her offspring was a synth whose processing power was so much greater than her own?

“Yup, that’s right,” she said. Her eyes met Hancock’s as he lounged on the sofa, boots hanging off the arm, reading glasses perched precariously on his half nose. An open book lay on his chest. He was grinning.

“Why?”

 _The universal question_ , she thought to herself. _More poignant because my son has not yet had a proper childhood. One year is hardly enough to wipe out all the Institute crap_.

“It’s a tradition,” she said. “Halloween is a time of preparation for the winter. There are many things symbolized at this time of year. This is one of them.”

“Oh, okay. What should I be?”

“Anything you want, honey.”

“Like…like a scientist or a Minuteman or…”

“Or a baseball player or a ghost,” she finished off for him, no longer able to keep in her mirth at how seriously he was taking this. She leaned against the bar separating the kitchen from the living room and shook her head with amusement.

“What’s a ghost, mom?”

“A ghost is the spirit of someone who has died,” Hancock said.

“For real?”

Nora and Hancock shared a glance. Had they really never talked about ghosts? The Commonwealth was scary enough, Nora supposed, so they didn’t exactly need to make up new spooky things to frighten him with. Not that he was ever frightened of anything. Except of losing them.

“Well, honey…” she started and then stopped because she wasn’t sure where she was going with it.

“Some people think they’re real,” Hancock said, sitting up on the sofa and putting his book aside. He had a gleam in his eye she recognized as his ‘dad face’. It was seriously adorable. “Some people think they’re just bunk…” Hancock leapt off the sofa and grabbed Shaun around the middle, tickling him and raising him off the floor. The little red headed boy shrieked with laughter. “’Til they get’cha.”

“Dad…stop…” Shaun wheezed between giggles. Hancock put him down and ruffled his hair.

“Halloween is for pretending, kiddo,” he said. “Just a night for kids to get silly and rake in the candy and junk food.”

“So why did Mom pick out those big gourds?” Shaun asked, looking between the two of them.

“They’re for carving,” Nora said. “We’ll hollow them out and put faces on them, then put candles inside to light them up.”

“But why?”

“In the olden days, they were supposed to keep the angry spirits away.”

“Spirits,” Shaun said dubiously. “Is that like ghosts?”

“Yes, honey, something like that.”

“I still don’t get it.”

“Oh, Shaun baby, you don’t have to analyze it to death. Just think of it as a fun thing we can do together as a family, all right?” Nora was still bubbling over with suppressed laughter. _Fun_ was something her serious little son was still trying to figure out. But he was getting there, slowly but surely.

“Okay, mom. Can I…can I go think of something I’d want to be?”

“Sure, honey.” He scampered off and left his parents blinking bemusedly at each other. “The things I never thought I’d have to explain,” Nora said, shaking her head again.

“The things I never thought I’d be experiencing,” Hancock rejoined, coming over to her at the bar and slipping his arms around her. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

“Hmm, the parenthood thing or…”

“All of it, Sunshine.” He kissed the tip of her nose. She tipped back her head and pulled him closer for a proper kiss.

“Mayor, husband, father. Still getting used to it all?”

“A bit, yeah,” he replied, resting his chin on her head. “I think I got it all under control.”

“Of course you do, my love.”

Shaun barreled back down the short hallway with all the energy of a regular eleven year old boy. He was still small and skinny – much like his mother – but there were definite changes since they’d brought him home. Nora wondered anew if he’d ever grow up, become an adult. She knew synths weren’t supposed to age at the same rate as humans, but he was special, even among his own kind. He was a little clone of Father, matching his DNA perfectly. Nora wasn’t a geneticist, but even she knew there was no way to keep a child a child forever. Not without some major tinkering. Father had been all kinds of messed up, and had probably never intended for this experimental version of himself to actually live this long, which still made her burn with rage, but she hoped he hadn’t robbed her of that. She hoped her son would grow, would go through all the stages of life with her to guide him now that he was free. There was no use in worrying about it, however. He would be what he would be, and they would all find out together.

 _A family. I have a family, Nate,_ she thought to herself. There was no answer. There hadn’t been for months and months. The ghost of her late husband was finally put to rest.

Shaun was wearing a trench coat that was about four sizes too big for him, and a slouchy hat that he’d placed on his head crookedly. He’d even found a tie. “Look, I’m Nick!” he announced. Hancock guffawed loudly and Nora giggled.

“It’s perfect, son,” she said.

***

They carved their gourds, scooping out the innards and cutting out faces with switchblades. Nora was surprised to find that Hancock had a really good eye for carving, although why she was surprised was a mystery. That man could do anything, in her opinion. They placed their jack-o’-lanterns on the front stoop of the house and she found some stubby candles to light them with. They glowed nicely. They weren’t quite pumpkins, but they were close enough.

It was getting dark, and Nora looked up and down the street of Sanctuary Hills to see they weren’t the only ones who’d had the same idea. Little glowing faces greeted them from nearly every house. Sanctuary Hills had grown in the better part of a year since the Institute’s destruction and there were plans to expand the community to the other side of the creek to accommodate all the new arrivals. Already two new houses were framed off on the far side. She felt a deep sense of satisfaction at that.

“You ready, kiddo?” Hancock asked Shaun, who was putting the finishing touches on his costume. A screwdriver peeked from the pocket of the trench coat and her Thirst Zapper poked out of the other one, in lieu of a real pistol, of course.

“One last thing,” she said before they embarked on their first trick or treating with him. She went to her storage chest in the old laundry room and found a plastic pumpkin she knew she’d been saving for a reason. She handed it to her son. “Something to put all your loot in.”

“Thanks, mom.”

They walked down the broad street and went to each house. Most of the residents already knew what Nora had planned for her son, and they were waiting to see him.

“Trick or treat?” he chirped.

“Happy Halloween, Shaun,” they said, dropping whatever they had into his pumpkin. Gumdrops, Fancy Lads, Dandy Boy Apples…before they’d gone halfway around the cul de sac, the pumpkin was full. And soon enough the street was full too. There were so many more kids now than there had been a year ago. Cheerful voices and outlandish costumes filled with street, with happy parents following behind them.

 _Just like the old days_ , Nora thought.

The moon rose over the horizon and cast a glow over the whole of Sanctuary Hills. The night was nippy and clear and millions of stars shone down on them. The smell of wood smoke filled the air, combined with fallen leaves and the promise of the coming frost. In the distance, Nora could hear Strong complaining loudly that he didn’t understand what this sort of behavior had to do with the milk of human kindness, and heard Mac trying to explain as he took little Duncan from house to house. They were an odd pair of friends, but friends just the same.

“General,” Preston Garvey broke into her thoughts, dropping another box of Dandy Boys into Shaun’s pumpkin. He wasn’t wearing his Minuteman outfit, she saw. He was wearing…a baseball uniform? “Happy Halloween.”

“Happy Halloween, Preston.” She chuckled over him and he looked sheepish, but happy.

“Look, mom, Preston is dressed up too!” Shaun cried happily.

“He is, honey. Halloween isn’t just for kids. Grown-ups like to have fun too.”

“That’s awesome, Mom.”

“Yeah…” she said, looking over everything she’d made here, everything that she’d built and forged and reclaimed from the ruins. “It is.”


End file.
